Tuesday, January 31, 2006

With a title like that, it could only refer to actual progress on Cozy!

Cozy Progress

I've made some actual headway on my Cozy. Tonight, I finished my second repeat of the feather pattern. *flexes* And, boy, can my fingers tell; they kind of feel a bit numb and rubbery at the moment. Fun typing!

I found that I can knit this pattern. I just need nearly complete silence and no distractions to concentrate only on the stitches and counting them. In college, I needed a lot less concentration to study for finals!! I must have knitting ADD...knit, purl, knit, OH look what's on CSI! Tonight, I sat in the blaring light over the dining room table, clicked on Big Band music on the satellite, and thought long and hard over some Cozy knitting. Knitting while listening to Big Band, that doesn't make me old does it?

Stitch close-up: It will need to be blocked within an inch of its life! And, no, the yarn isn't sparkly.

At the rate of two pattern repeats in a little under a week, I think it was wise of me to set a goal of Mother's Day on this project!

Monday, January 30, 2006

Thursday night, I cast on Cozy from Knitty.com Fall 2004 edition. That's about as far as I've gotten. Well, I have knitted up to the third row in the feather pattern, but I keep screwing it up and frogging. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but needless to say much cursing has been happening the past few nights. After casting on for the fifth time, I finally started using a lifeline after every successfully created row. Its cursed lace, I've came to accept this. It would have been burnt long before now if the yarn wasn't so yummy, Knitpicks Andean Silk in bluebell. At this point, after the fifth row in the feather pattern, I wind up a stitch short. I’m just avoiding it at this point…maybe it will knit itself in my knitting bag.

Cursed Cozy, note the use of the black lifeline and ghetto drinking straw stitch markers

For Cozy, I'm using Brylane plastic circulars. Personally, I prefer these circulars over Addis as they're longer and fit my utilitarian, big mitts better. The concave point also lends itself pretty well for the k2tog tbl stitch without too much fuss.

For a bit of light movie watching knitting, I cast on a second pair of Irish Hiking fingerless gloves in Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in Winter Night. Exactly like the set I just made for my little sister, but this time for my mom. How can you deny knitting when prefaced with "Oh, those would be perfect for keeping my arthritis pain patches on my hands while driving"? My little sister seemingly loves the IHS ipod sock and fingerless gloves; she's been wearing the gloves all weekend in the house, lol!

Friday, my mom and I tried our hands at felting. Nothing quite like purposefully melting and shrinking something you knit. We kept it small with a few coasters out of Cascade Pastaza. I doubt if I'll ever use it as a real coaster as my dog would steal and eat it off the living room tables. He seemed all too interested in this yarn while still in the hank, guess he likes llamas and sheep.

Irish Hiking Wrist Warmers, Part Deux!

Funky hand-felted coaster

Saturday, I was signed up for a two circular needle sock knitting class that was unfortunately cancelled. Instead, I picked up some wee double pointed needles and a few hanks of Lorna's Lace sock yarn and will set out on the web to teach myself. I'm really excited to see how the Lorna's Lace will knit up. Being the fantasy geek that I am, I had to buy the "Aslan" color scheme. *grin* I can't help but wonder how it would look knitted as a Clapotis...

Lorna's Lace Shepherd Sock in Aslan colorway - purty!

Hopefully, I'll be able to put in another Knitpicks order soon. I'd like to get the materials ordered for the Gryffindor and DNA scarves. The baby blanket pattern should be reaching my local yarn store this week, too. I settled on a pattern from Oat Couture, and I am pretty excited to see the pattern details!

Friday, January 27, 2006

My cable needles were stalking me and came out of hiding. I had to oblige by making more cabled knits :)

Irish Hiking Fingerless Gloves and Wee Ipod Sock

I'd show a pic of the fingerless gloves being worn, but, alas, these aren't destined for my big mits. These will be for my 11 year-old sister and her ipod nano named "Yoda-pod". (I have to help hone any geeky tendencies in her, ya know!) Don't want to have the gloves stretched out to an unusable size for her as much as I'm tempted. Instead, oogle my knitted tubes as they're blocking!

In the spirit of trying to learn new things and expanding my knitting repertoire, I used the mattress stitch to "seamlessly" sew these up. Yep, I sewed; it wasn't pretty. After watching the free how-to video on knittinghelp.com and even more cursing and a lot more cursing, I finally got the nack of the mattress stitch. I enjoy knitting, now sewing! Thank God I bought a set of real finishing needles to replace my old blue plastic, snaggy Wal-mart specials!

Muhmuhmuhmuh-mattress Stitch! Surely, I'm not the only one who's ever played Unreal Tournament :)

Irish Hiking Fingerless Gloves Stats: Knitted over two nights and finished on the third. Yarn was Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in Winter Night, just under one skein. Knitted on my now green dyed US#7 birch needles. There are 6 full cable repeats in this version, mainly because I over did it a bit while watching CSI.

Monday, January 23, 2006

As I don't have any new knitting content, here's a pic of my Hubs and knitting partner, Bandit

I'm getting ready to cast on the Irish hiking wrist warmers. Instead, I have some recommendations for podcasts. I'd highly recommend the Cast-On: A Podcast for Knitters and KnitCast podcasts. They made for good in-cubicle and while knitting listening. Enjoy!

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Just finished up my Wavy scarf a few minutes ago. I'm so excited to have something I knitted for little ol' me to wear. I did make this a bit shorter than the pattern states; I made 8 pattern repeats instead of 9. With a finished length of 67 inches though, its more than enough for my 5'4" frame. In fact, its 3 inches taller than me, lol!

Next project on the needles will be the Irish hiking wrist warmers for my sister. I may have to knit up a scarf/hat/wrist warmer in that set for myself yet!

Wavy Vital Stats: Just under 2 skeins of Cascade 220,67 inches in length, and a whole lot of CSI episodes :)

Thursday, January 19, 2006

I admit it; I'm a process knitter. I enjoy the process and with no pending deadlines, I drag my feet. Just like me to be a procrastinating knitter :) Since its been in the 50s here in Indiana, no real weather related pressures for me to finish my wooly scarf either. I did make some headway tonight during back to back episodes of CSI.

Wavy stats: Just started repeat 5 of 9, 36 inches long, almost a full skein of Cascade 220 is knitted up.

Up close and personal with the wavy ribbing

I really dig this pattern in this color. Reminds me of the lake; rolling bluey-greeny-brown water around a whole mess of boats. Now, that's a nice thought in the middle of winter :)

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

So, I'm curious to see if the ability to knit socks is genetic. I asked myself that question last night while on the phone to my mom. Even though I'm sure Mom's tired of hearing me go on and on about yarn and knitting and projects I want to do, I was telling her how excited I am to be taking a sock knitting class next Saturday. I then heard the story of my grandma's preferred knitting projects - socks!

My grandma sounded like quite an avid sock knitter; however, she never got the hang of turning heels. She'd knit the sock to the heel, take the socks to her friend, have her friend knit the heel, and finished the socks herself.

Let me just relay my horror that my very craft skilled grandma never got the hang of turning heels, and now I'm going to be attempting it in a week and a half. I may want to have lots of chocolate on hand for the Knitting Olympics since I wanted to challenge myself by knitting my first pair of socks. Let's just hope that the heel turning gene doens't work against me!

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Wavy progress in funny overhead light, natural lighting just isn't a possibility after 6pm in the winter here

I'm 12 rows into my second of nine pattern repeats on my Wavy scarf. Yep, that's right, I'm knitting for me! :) I did this pattern as part of my Christmas knitting barrage and enjoyed it alot, even though I did do my first one in black yarn. *shudder* My eyes are still strained from that one!

My cable needles must be getting jealous of all the attention Wavy has been receiving. This morning, I opened the driver-side door to my SUV, and on the seat lay one of my long lost cable needles. It went missing last Thursday night; luckily, I found my other lost cable needle under my bed that night. Now, I'm not sure if the oil change guys found the needle somewhere in my vehicle last night and just left it on my seat or if I've had a cable needle somehow stuck to my clothes for nearly a week. If more cable needles catch me unaware like that, I may be forced to cast on a new project with cables.

Sunday, January 15, 2006

I finished up the Irish Hiking Scarf for my Hubs tonight. Little bit over a week went into this project and lots of Battlestar Galatica episodes. *grin* Hubs is a really tall guy, so I made the scarf to be 72 inches in length so it can be worn doubled up and not fall off his shoulders.

I loved doing this pattern, and I will probably make another one soon! Next project to go on the needles will be a Wavy scarf for me and a set of Irish hiking fingerless gloves for my sister.

Friday, January 13, 2006

Ok, what in the HELL is up with shipping prices from things bought on the internet?

I found the cutest little pattern for a baby blanket over the net, but none of the local yarn stores carry it. *sigh* Being the resourceful type of person I am, I googled the pattern and found one store in California that sells it over the net. Ok, I can see paying $5.50 for a pattern that will be one sheet of paper with paying for the author's time to create the pattern. But over $6 to ship a PIECE OF PAPER by ground shipping that could make it here on a $0.39 stamp...nope, deal's off. Looks like I'm back to scrounging the net for the perfect pattern again. Shipping prices suck when you're cheap like me!

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Unfortunately, I was hit by a poorly timed bout of the flu, so my progress on the Irish Hiking Scarf completely stopped over the past weekend. However, I've been able to crank out quite a lot this week. I still really enjoy this pattern and watching the cables emerge.

Detail of the cables with scarf folded

Showing off the length

Vital Scarf Stats: 44 inches long now, have 2.5 skeins left to knit (Hubs is mighty tall). One lost cable needle sure to be found with the barest patch of skin at some point. Most importantly, Hubs really likes it :D

Sunday, January 08, 2006

My massive yarn order from Knitpicks.com arrived Thursday. Let me tell you just how wonderful of a sight it was to find my mailbox so shoved full of wool that it wouldn't close properly :) Within minutes, I cast on the Irish Hiking Scarf for my Hubs.

I watching the pattern progress, but I have learned that its not good lunchtime knitting for me. Bit too difficult for me to knit, eat, talk, and help a fellow knitter out all at the same time.

I have found that the pattern is very addictive. Before getting my Knitpicks order, I knitted three ipod socks! Hello, my name is Christina, and I'm a cable addict!

IHS Stats: Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in Mist, using US #7 needles by Brittany, one skein of five knitted as of Saturday night.

Its amazing how the little things in life can make it so much easier. Over Thanksgiving, I attempted to make my first center pull ball from a hank of cotton yarn. Six hours and much cursing later, I had two partial balls wound as it had tangled into a spaghetti-like mess within minutes of me starting. Ever since, I've been avoiding buying hanks, but not anymore!

Armed with my remaining Christmas money, I went to the newest yarn store in Indy (NEW YARN STORE!!), Knit Stop. I loved it there, very cozy environment for knitting, three dogs roaming about, and a wonderful selection of yarns with clearly marked prices on each skein.

After picking up a skein of Cascade Pastaza for Felting Friday with my mom this week, I found, on the shelf, ballwinders for sale. Be still my heart, I had to have one.

Within minutes of getting home, I unwound the hank of Cascade, draped it around my neck, and wound up the hank. My dog, Bandit, approved of the llama and wool blend by constantly rubbing his head against the hank as it dangled from my neck. Guess the next knitting notion I should buy is a swift!

Thursday, January 05, 2006

I love coming home to a mailbox so stuffed with packaged yarn that it can't close! I knew there had to be a benefit to living in Indiana; only one state away from the Knitpicks.com shipping location in Ohio. I'd have taken pictures of my newly acquired stash, but Hubs decided to leave the digital camera uncharged. *grumble*

Monday, January 02, 2006

I have not been warned of the addictive qualities of cables, but I'm now hooked. After much frantic knitting for the past month preparing for Christmas, I felt that I deserved a bit of wooly goodness for myself. Last night, I casted on an ipod sock from the Irish Hiking pattern. Not wanting my cell phone to be jealous, I also knitted one up to keep him warm, too...and started a third for my sister's ipod Nano. This is my first project where I had to seam and use cables, go me!

Size wiseIn use playing my Harry Potter audio books

While knitting these ipod and cell phone socks up, I had an earworm running through my brain..words adapted by easily entertained me:

To the tune of Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel from South Park:

Cable, cable, cableI made you out of stringCable, cable, cableOf cables I will sing.